OREANDA-NEWS. Nearly 350 people will be participating in the 2016 ECPR Graduate Student Conference, hosted by the UT Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies on 10-13 July.

The ECPR Graduate Student Conference is a biennial conference which gives graduate students an opportunity to organize and take part in an international academic event designed to cater specifically for their needs, e.g. giving the experience of acting as section heads, panel chairs and discussants.

With more than 75 panels, the conference will cover all sub-fields of political science. The final tally encompasses participants from more than 160 different institutions and over 30 countries from all over the world. According to Professor Vello Pettai, the head of the local organizing committee, it is the biggest political science conference held in Tartu: “We are delighted to host so many future scholars here, and hope that aside of an invaluable academic experience, we can show them what Tartu and Estonia have to offer”.

The conference will also feature a plenary lecture on “The Kantian Peace Reinvented: The Emerging Mass Basis of Interstate Pacifism” delivered by Prof. Christian Welzel from Leuphana Universit?t L?neburg, and roundtables on academic publishing, writing research proposals, and Western-Russian relations.

European Consortium for political Research (ECPR) is an independent scholarly association, established in 1970. Its 350 institutional members across around 50 countries represent the leading universities, students and senior academics engaged in the research and teaching of political science worldwide. Before Tartu, the graduate conference has been held in Innsbruck, Bremen, Dublin, Barcelona, and Essex.

The conference benefits from the support of the EU European Regional Development Fund, the municipality of Tartu, and the University of Tartu.